Notre Dame's Postseason Run Falls Short in Championship

Notre Dame's late-season run that lifted it from a potential bubble team to a championship participant ended in defeat Monday at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore, as the Irish lost to Duke 11-9. It was Notre Dame's second appearance in the national championship game and its second loss to Duke in a title contest. The Blue Devils beat the Irish 6-5 in overtime in the 2010 DI championship.

Sitting at 6-5 to end the regular season, the Irish were potentially on the outside looking in at the postseason picture, but the team came alive in the ACC Tournament, getting revenge against a Maryland team that beat them a week prior, then topping Syracuse in the league championship to secure a spot in the NCAA Tournament. With a win over Army in the regular-season finale, the Irish were clicking, at least offensively. They dispensed Harvard with aplomb in the first round of the tournament, then battled back to top a dangerous Albany team in the quarterfinals, arguably the best game of the postseason. They got their second win against Maryland in the Final Four, and from there it was just the Blue Devils that stood in their way.

“We want to congratulate the University of Notre Dame, fantastic season, ACC Tournament championship, which is something we couldn't do,” Duke coach John Danowski said after the game. “Just had a tremendous playoff run.”

Notre Dame's late-season surge was led largely by an emergence of a dynamic offense, one that averaged 14.5 goals per game during their six-game win streak heading into the tournament. On the season, the Irish were 11-1 when they broke double-digit goals, but 1-5 when held under ten, including the nine-goal effort in the championship.

“We really found our stride around the ACC Tournament time,” the team's leading scorer, sophomore attackman Matt Kavanagh (42G, 33A), said postgame. “We just continued to work hard in practice every day, not taking any days off, knowing that it could be our last week. We just had trust in everyone that was on the field.”

Duke limited Kavanagh's touches in the title contest, with senior defender Henry Lobb drawing the assignment and effectively blanketing the smaller attackman for much of the day. Kavanagh still registered two goals and an assist with his usual scrappy and opportunistic play around the goal. But in the first half the Irish could not get much clicking, being held to just one tally in the first 30 minutes of play as they turned the ball over 11 times.

“That's a game's worth of turnovers,” Notre Dame coach Kevin Corrigan said postgame. “Just kind of inexplicable turnovers for us, not the kind of thing we've been doing.”

Despite the struggles offensively, the defense played well, holding the potent Duke scorers to just five goals in fhte first half. In the second half the Irish began to find their groove offensively, using a 6-1 run over 16:40 from the third through fourth quarters to cut the game to 9-8 Duke.

“They just got on a run,” Lobb said postgame. “They got the ball off the ground, lose it, kind of got some scrappy goals that they love to do and that kind of gave them some energy.”

“We thought all along that the last 20 minutes of the game were going to be where the game was decided,” Corrigan said. “We knew we were deeper; we knew we would be stronger in the last 20 minutes, and we were. We just came up a play or two short.”

The surge back was lead by freshman middie Sergio Perkovic, who lead Notre Dame with five goals on the afternoon. He scored his first unassisted on an alley dodge lefty in the third, then added another unassisted tally five minutes later.

“Perkovic had a career day, and he was terrific,” Danowski said, adding that “nobody was saving that” lefty rip to open the freshman's scoring, and highlighting him as a guy who stepped up in a big situation. “In these games guys step up, and for him today, we were aware of him, we were aware how good of a shooter he is, and he had a great day.”

“In the second half, I just really wanted to beat my guys since they weren't sliding and try to take advantage of them not sliding, just going hard, being aggressive and dodging hard,” Perkovic said. “I like to dodge one-on-one, and as the season has progressed, I've gotten more comfortable doing that.”

With their history of comebacks this season, Notre Dame never lost faith despite trailing throughout. As the offense began to trim the deficit, confidence grew on the field and on the sideline.

With the margin down to one, Duke was able to dig out the few plays they needed to win, as tournament Most Outstanding Player Jordan Wolf assisted his fourth goal of the game, this time to Kyle Keenan on the crease, returning the cushion to two. Perkovic then stuck another righty rip off a Conor Doyle feed to make it a one-goal affair with 49 seconds to play (pictured above). But again Duke would answer, as Brendan Fowler won the ensuing face-off, a duel in which Corrigan “didn't think there was any question” Fowler jumped. Wolf then got his second goal of the day, out running a double team and scoring on the empty net to solidify the 11-9 win.

“I thought the last 20 minutes of the game went just like — kind of just like we hoped it would go for the most part,” Corrigan said of his team's rally. “Obviously not the last couple goals, but we just dug ourselves too big a hole.”

The pain of the loss was evident on the Notre Dame players' faces as they sat to answer postgame questions, but there was a reflective optimism about what they were able to achieve and what they might be building towards next year.

“From where we were at the beginning of the year until now, I can't believe how far we've come,” Kavanagh said.

Corrigan had seen his team put up impressive numbers in early-season wins, but it was the economy of his offense that improved as the year went on.

“What we weren't capable of doing was playing kind of efficiently in any kind of game all along,” the coach said, speaking about his team dealing with possession deficiencies and decision-making issues at points in the year. “We certainly got much better as the year went on with that.”

That offensive group comes back largely intact next season, as five of the seven players who registered points in the championship return, with Perkovic being potentially the biggest piece. Corrigan said it took just the second practice of the year for him to realize Perkovic might be “the best player we've ever had.

“I think he's going to be one of the absolute stars in college lacrosse for the next three years because he's terrifically talented,” Corrigan said, highlighting Perkovic's work from end-to-end as he rides, clears, plays attack and middie, plays defense, and is very coachable to boot. The freshman from Michigan shared a similarly positive outlook on what the Irish could do next year.

“We have a lot of guys coming back, especially like on offense, and obviously Conor Kelly as our goalie,” Perkovic said. “It's really exciting just to know that, and obviously we can just start working this summer and try to get back here with a different result next year.”